Foldable building structure



Oct. 9, 1956 w. LUDOWICI ,4

FOLDABLE BUILD ING STRUCTURE Filed April 26, 1951 Jn venfor: WI IhP/IMLaden-Ira,

) Mv 9M 2,765,497 FOLDABLE BUILDING STRUCTURE Wilhelm Ludowici,Jock'grim, Germany Application April 26, 1951, Serial No. 222,989 InGermany October 20, 1949 Public Law 619, August 23, 1954' Patent expiresOctober 20, 1969 3 Claims. (Cl. 20-2) The invention relates to afoldable building or building frame of large structural parts which isusable in build ing construction, or to a form, comprising large formparts, which is employed for the construction of buildings.

Hitherto, in building construction, relatively large separate parts havebeen joined together only at the building site to form a building, aframe or a casing. In principle, however, the old system of buildingwith bricks has not been abandoned in this connection. The elementscorresponding in principle to bricks have only become larger and nowcomprise quite large building parts, especially to the extent that lightbuilding materials, such as wooden, metallic and plastic materials havebeen employed. However, the joints in such buildings involve not onlyproblems, which have by now been substantially solved, with regard tothe packing of the joints against the elements, but, in addition, thehitherto frequently difficult problem of an adequate and safetransmission of the normal forces and thrust forces occurring in thejoint faces.

The known methods of casting a building in a frame are so troublesomeand require such an expenditure for material and labor that they cannotbe considered for economical building construction, especially in thecase of separate buildings, such as dwellings.

The object of the invention is to obviate the aforesaid drawbacks in theproduction of buildings or building frames in building construction, orof forms for casting buildings in concrete or the like.

According to the invention, this object is attained by hingedlyconnecting all or certain individual structural or form parts in such amanner that they can, for the purpose of transport, be completely orpartially folded to a profile permitting them to be transported to thebuilding site and reset into the condition of use by being unfolded.

The folding may be carried out in various ways to suit the particularcases. Preferably, however, the hinges are positioned in such a mannerthat the individual structural or form elements are arranged so thatthey can be superposed on and/ or placed side by side with one another.

Since, moreover, in building construction, the type of construction tobe used is determined not by the rough construction alone, but alsolargely by the internal construction and the internal arrangement of theparts in the building, regard must be had to these also. If the foldablestructure is to fulfill these requirements also, then it must bepossible to fold not only the elements such as the walls, the floors andthe ceilings, but also to transport certain important interior fittings,such as plumbing and the like, in the assembled condition and to leavethem in their place, although the building is folded together fortransport. This requirement can be met by arranging the folding hingeson two parallel lines which cut the two transverse walls of thebuilding, not at the corner points, out at some distance from thecorners. If now the building is folded together the longitudinal sidesapproach each other, whereby installations which have previously beenfixed to the walls, are not damaged because hollow spaces tates Patent2,765,497 Patented Oct. 9,. 6

are formed by the special sort of construction in which theinstallations are located. This has the further advantage that theotherwise existing problem of packing the hinge joints at the corners,which is especially dif ficult, is avoided and the corners do not haveto be stiffened after unfolding and erection of the structure. If thefolding joints were exactly at the corners of the building, specialdifficulties would arise in creating a seal against the entry of rainand air at these corners. As, however, the joints are, according to theinvention, not at the corners of the building this ditficult packing isobviated.

Further, according to the invention, the foldable building or the formor the space-enclosing parts thereof may be mounted on a carriage insuch a manner that they can be transported without additional devicesand erected at the place at which they are used. The carriage may alsobe attached in such a manner that it facilitates the folding andunfolding of the buildings or forms or their parts by being itselfprovided with wheels or rollers that can be set in the direction oftravel.

In order that, after putting the concrete or the like into the wallform, no interruption in the building should occur, but that it shouldbe possible to put the ceiling on immediately, supporting devices forthe ceiling are also provided, according to the invention, in the formitself or independently thereof. These may consist of, for example, twoprops and a cross member resting thereon which secures the ceiling beamsimmediately in front of the support from below, so that the ceiling loadis transmitted to the wall only after the setting of the concrete in theform. Naturally, the arrangement may be quite independent of the form inorder to render it possible for the form to be removed during thesetting and to be used again for the next building operation. Thefoldable form may also be arranged to be heatable for building work inthe winter and to obtain quickly a great strength of the outer layers ofthe walls.

Further details, features and advantages of the inven tion will be seenfrom the following description in which an example of an embodiment of afoldable building part or form will be more fully explained with the aidof the accompanying drawings, of which:

Fig. 1 represents, in perspective, a part of a foldable building in theerected condition and Fig.' 2 represents it in the folded condition;

Fig. 3 shows, in perspective, a form in the erected condition and Fig. 4shows it in the Fig. 5 is an end folded form.

In the form of the invention according to Fig. 1, the building consistsof two outer walls 2 and 4, two end walls 1 and 3 and two intermediateWalls 5 and 6, all of the walls being formed of separate panels 7.Whereas the panels 7 of the two outer walls 2 and 4 are rigidlyconnected together and there are rigidly connected panels 7 forming atransversely disposed lateral wall at each end of the outer walls 2 and4, each panel 7 forming a linking wall for the end walls 1 and 3, whichend walls are parallel to each other, is connected to the transverselydisposed lateral wall by hinges 8 and 12 and 11 and 15. The intermediatewalls 5 and 6 comprise a plurality of pairs of opposed transverselydisposed walls rigidly connected to the parallel side walls 2 and 4.Middle linking walls for these transverse walls are hinged to therigidly attached walls by hinges 9 and 13 and 10 and 14. The lengths ofthe transverse walls and lateral walls rigidly attached to each of theparallel outer walls are different, and are such that the hingesconnecting the transverse and lateral walls to the middle linking wallslie on two parallel folded condition. elevation of the carriage carryinga 3 lines which are oblique with respect to the outer walls 2and 4.

The folding about the hinge points 8-15 is effected, as shown in Fig. 2,in such a manner that the lateral and transverse wall, which are rigidlyconnected with the outer walls 2 and 4, maintain the spaces bounded bythem, while the middle plates,'which are connected to the lateral andtransverse walls by the hinges 815, reach a position in which they'areapproximately parallel to the outer walls 2 and 4. After the folding,the whole length of walls 1, 3, 5 and 6 therefore extend along a brokenline. The form for casting the walls of a building consists, as shown inFigs. 3 and 4, of the outer wall parts 1619, the narrow end parts 16 and18 of which are divided at the middle. All the parts of this outer wallfor the form are connected together by hinges 28. There are connectedwiththese outer Wallparts, by distance pieces 29 and 30, an inner wallof parts 20-27, the parts 20, 23, 26 and 27 of which are likewisedivided at the middle, and all of which are also connected together byhinges 28. The folding of the whole form takes place as follows: Theouter wall end parts 16 and 18 fold outwardly, the two inner wall parts20 and 27 fold in the same direction as the outer wall parts, and theinner wall parts 23 and 26 also fold in the same direction as theouterwall parts.

The casing may be provided with carriages 31 on its rigid longitudinalsides in order to render it possible to transport it without a specialvehicle. The wheels 32 are advantageously rotatable about vertical axes,so that they can automatically adjust themselves to the directions inwhich the shell is folded 'or unfolded or transported to its place ofuse. In the example represented, the form is transported in a directionthat extends transversely of the direction of folding or opening.

The carriage can easily be fitted to the form and removed therefrom. Itallows the casing to be deposited on the ground as well as an upwardremoval of the casing or a lifting of the casing through the height ofthe carriage by means of mechanical or hydraulic lifting devices.

A foldable building structure as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 may, like thecasing, be transported by means of such acarriage.

Obviously, the invention is not limited to the details 4 described butvariations of different kinds are possible within its scope.

What I claim is:

1. A building structure, foldable particularly for transportationpurposes, comprising parallel outer walls, a plurality of walls ofdifferent lengths transversely disposed to and rigidly connected to saidouter walls, middle linking walls hingedly connecting said transverselydisposed walls, whereby in a collapsed condition, a space is leftbetween said outer walls sutficient to accommodate fittings attachedthereto and in said condition the middle linking walls are substantiallyparallel to said outer walls.

2. A foldable building structure comprising two parallel outer walls,pairs of opposed walls of different lengths transversely disposed tosaid outer walls and rigidly attached thereto, a middle wall linkingeach of said pairs of opposed Walls, hinges connecting said middlelinking walls to said opposed walls, said hinges being located on twoparallel lines oblique with respect to said outer walls.

3. A collapsible building structure which in a closed conditioncomprises two parallel outer walls spaced from each other, a lateralwall at each end of each of said parallel walls rigidly connectedthereto, the lateral walls on opposite ends of each outer wall being ofdifferent lengths, and middle Walls hingedly linking together saidlateral walls and disposed substantially parallel to said outer walls.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS606,459 Hubbard June 28, 1898 763,801 Schouten June 28, 1904 807,907Boore Dec. 19, 1905 1,100,273 Wiard June 16, 191 r 1,124,212 CromleyJan. 5, 1915 1,238,228 Weil Aug. 28, 1917 1,285,467 Thiessen et a1. Nov.19, 1918 1,465,145 Park Aug. 14, 1923 1,823,940 Hoegermeyer Sept. 22,1931 2,257,522 Bailey Sept. 30, 1941 2,496,778 Concklin Feb. 7, 19502,506,319 St. Paul May 2, 1950

